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The Congressional Budget Office baseline for agriculture will be 25% below 2002 because high commodity prices have resulted in lower expenditures for agriculture in recent years. Groups are doing everything they can to get more than that in this year's farm bill debate.
The 2002 Farm Bill was written following three years of federal budget surplus, but when Congress writes the 2007 Farm Bill, it's under very different circumstances.
American Farmland Trust President Ralph Grossi explains that current high grain prices, driven by surging interest in renewable fuels, means there may be as much as $7-8 billion a year less in the agriculture baseline when the federal budget figures are released this quarter. "It means we are obligated to ensure that we can justify and explain how increased funding will benefit the public," Grossi adds.
"So we have two farm bill debates this year: first in the Budget Committee to determine how much money we will have to spend, and then in the agriculture committees to decide how to allocate it. As the public, we have to decide how much money we want to allot to feeding the hungry, cleaning up the environment, on rural development and improving our diets, and much more."
Before the President released his budget, over 100 groups including the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers Union, America's Second Harvest and the National Association of Conservation Districts sent a letter to the House and Senate Budget committees asking for increased funding in this farm bill.
"Given the cuts agricultural programs have already sustained over the last several years, and the substantial savings as a result of farm bill programs, we ask that you adopt mandatory and discretionary spending levels that provide for additional funding and resist efforts to force further budget reductions on agricultural, food assistance, conservation and other critical programs," states the letter.
According to CongressDaily, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson asked House Budget Chairman John Spratt for "'quite a bit of money' above the baseline and that Spratt's 'eyes got big.'"
Peterson said he was "optimistic" that he will get the money, and CongressDaily also reported Peterson would favor an extension of the 2002 Farm Bill for a few years if he doesn't get it.
The budget committee will likely release their budget in March and Congress will begin crafting farm bill legislation after that point.
Policy is one of the most important issues facing farmers today, but often the most difficult to digest. Jacqui Fatka has a passion to decode the often difficult world of agricultural policy into terms understandable for today's ag players.
Fatka joined the Farm Progress team as E-Content Editor in August 2003 after graduating from Iowa State University. Prior to full-time employment with Farm Progress, she interned at Wallaces Farmer magazine, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley's press office and the Iowa Pork Producers Association and freelanced for National Hog Farmer. She also worked as a public relations consultant with Iowa Industries for the Future, an effort to bring together major players in the biorenewables industry.
Currently Fatka is a staff editor at a sister publication, Feedstuffs. For Farm Futures she regularly tells the story of ongoing agricultural policy changes. Her byline can also be found on management profiles.
Fatka grew up on a grain and livestock farm near Atlantic, Iowa. She currently lives in central Ohio with her husband Eric.
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